Cloud 9
by VoltageStone
Summary: Every moment she confined in Blue after knowing her heart found its place. (Female Sole Survivor)


**. Cloud 9 .**

_"Blue, I'm on cloud nine. Things couldn't be better. And that's all thanks to you..."  
~Piper Wright_

* * *

Barks and bullets rang through the air as wooden shrapnel splintered over her shoulder. Crouching in a long, red coat, she grabbed the shepherd dog by the scruff of his neck and tugged him away from the side, just as several rounds tore into rotting wood floor. "Dogmeat, what did she tell you?" the woman hissed. "Don't _move_."

His ears drooped as he whimpered himself around her, collapsing underneath a rusting table.

"Good boy," the woman murmured, tucking a lock of raven hair behind her ears. Chewing on her bottom lip, she waited as her heart pulsed behind her ears. "Three...two—" The ground shook and she failed momentarily, barely able to catch her gun. Heaving hurried breaths, the woman slipped the press cap back onto her head as enraged screams filled her ears.

"You fucking bit—" The woman saw the glow of sparks as the man's words were abruptly cut short, as was his breath. Silence then blanketed the area, the woman's jade eyes wandering around the shake, waiting.

A whistle sliced through the quiet briefly.

"Alright, Dogmeat. We can go now." The dog wagged his tail, scooping himself up as she stepped over the wooden door, which barely held its shape with all of its holes. In the middle of the massacre stood a woman in a blue jumpsuit, her ashen hair kept in a bun that would've been kept tight, if it weren't for the ten-or-so bodies littered around her. She fiddled with a shotgun, brows furrowed.

The woman in blue glanced at the rest of her party, her grey eyes catching the light of the dying sun. "All patched up?" she asked softly.

Pink tinted Piper's cheeks as she scratched her neck. "Yeah, I don't know where I'd be without you...or the stimpaks." The woman chuckled, then shouldered the weapon.

"Come on. I don't want to be around here by the time it's night."

Piper and Dogmeat trudged after her, right to her side. "Are we still going to be able to get in Diamond City in time, Blue?"

The woman—Blue—shook her head. "The damn raiders wasted our time. I'd say we get up high," she answered, nodding to the extended roads, shooting to the sky far above. "I'd hate to get caught by something else."

As Dogmeat trotted happily in front of them, Piper said, "But what about the ghouls? You _know_ they like being up there."

"Anywhere, really." Piper couldn't argue. "And besides, we can deal with them easy. Especially with that new sword I found." The smile that spread across Blue's face was gleeful, even mischievous.

"You don't even know how to use a sword."

"What?" Blue scoffed playfully. "You just swing it around. It worked for those gunners and raiders from before!" Piper gave a soft laugh, rolling her eyes. For the next few minutes, the trio continued to clamber up a steep incline before finding themselves at a collapsed part of the highway. "See anything?"

Piper shook her head. "No. I doubt there _won't_ be anything." Blue gave a nod of agreement before starting forward. At the top, both poked their heads hesitantly from behind a corner as Dogmeat began to wander about the area. "It's quiet at least."

Dogmeat, then, erupted in vicious barks as there was a horrid growl. "You were saying?" Blue muttered as the two both launched from their spot. The four ghouls they found were relatively easy to take care of. Blue made use of her sword, as promised, while Piper found it just as efficient to swing her bat, shoving them off the road to the dirt below. Once done, she tiredly sat beside an abandoned bus, Dogmeat limping passed her.

"Oh buddy," she said. "Come over here." He turned around and slowly crawled to her. Piper began to rummage through a few satchels that Blue left against the bus, grinning once she pulled out a stimpak. "Hold still," she whispered, aiming the needle at his neck. "Come on...there we go." Chucking the used stimpak away, Piper watched as Dogmeat stretched, grunting to himself. He licked her cheek in thanks.

With a sigh, Piper rested her head against the bus, eyes to the stars that began to blossom. They twinkled against the purple sky, hints of red still amongst the clouds. She looked to her right where the sun was setting behind the mountains, Blue's silhouette casting a long shadow behind her. Piper got to her feet and strolled over. With ease—or with as much ease as she could muster with her sore hip—Piper sat beside Blue. As their legs dangled over the edge, Blue continued to fiddle with the shotgun; it was then that Piper noticed the long cracks and dents along the sides of the barrel. Blue grumbled, pursing her lips around the lit cigarette in her mouth before smoke flowed out between her teeth and nostrils.

"You think Arturo will take this junk?"

"Why don't you just fix it?"

Blue thought for a moment, then aimed the shotgun ahead. "I guess. This is the twentieth time in the past week. I can see why it was in the trash now." Stripping the cigarette from her lips, Blue heaved a breath, placing the faulty weapon beside her. "Maybe I'll just scrap it for parts then. It has a really good scope on it...don't know why it's on a shotgun of all things though."

"You could put it on that new sniper you have," Piper said. Blue nodded, the thin line of smoke twirling from the stick in her hand. "You going to finish that?"

"No, here." The cigarette was handed over, and Piper inhaled slowly. All of the day's stress—even month's—was exhaled from her shoulders. She dragged a tire from a car, propping it against her head as she laid down. Casually, she continued to burn her way through the smoke as Blue looked out in the distance, absentmindedly rubbing the new deep cut on her cheek. While it was days old by now, the red was stark against the long, white scar jutting across her face, from her eyebrow to her lower chin.

"Does it still hurt?"

She jerked her attention to Piper, whose hat was tipped to the side. "Not really, no... It's another one to the collection."

Piper watched her, pity briefly in her eyes. "You can never get away unscathed after those deathclaws, can you?"

Blue laughed to herself shortly. "I'm surprised I can even get away." Dogmeat came from behind them curiously, folding his paws underneath his chest as he laid down, eyes out to where their backs were turned. Both took the time to stroke one of his ears before gazing back out to the sunset. There was a line of orange outlining the mountains by that point. "I'm surprised that I've managed to live this long to begin with," she added softly.

"I can't even imagine, Blue. Just... Everything's changed so much for you, hasn't it?"

"That's an understatement," she mumbled gravely. After a few moments, Piper sat up, slowly drawing circles across Blue's shoulders. Even with the jumpsuit and leather armor, she could feel the morbid scar that gnarled her back at a deathclaw's talons. Pushing the image of finding Blue in a heap of blood amongst tall grass—one stimpak out of her reach—Piper continued to comfort her, pecking her shoulder. "This...highway...I remember going to Boston as a little girl on here, to a baseball game or movie. I remember coming down her to see my grandma in the hospital, then my grandpa. And my husband, when I was in labor, sped down here to the hospital."

Blue frowned, and gripped her biceps. They almost felt foreign to her for a moment; they weren't soft, but instead shaped by the rough world around her. "I can go by every day just taking everything how it is now, and not how it was, but...I can't. There'll always be a small part of me that will look at Diamond City, and just see a baseball field where, when I was six, I saw the greatest homerun and catch of all history in one game. _One_ game, Piper."

"How do you do it, then?" Piper asked. "How do you continue on like this?"

Blue shrugged her shoulders, and they were dropped quickly. "I just do. It's hard to _not_ to, really. I just, I know I have a purpose and I can't just quit now. I have a name already, fuckin' 200-year-old woman. If I can do that then...God, then I want to be more than just a thawed out piece of meat."

Piper leaned against her lover and said, "You know you're more than that."

"I know."

"And what purpose?" she murmured softly.

"You...Nat, Dogmeat—everybody stranded here that looks to me, of all people. I've never been good with peer-pressure, or anything of the sort so...I can't just leave any of you. And Shaun," Blue answered. "I want to see my baby again, even though..."

A hand closed around her thigh, Piper's hand slow on her back. "What?"

"I don't know if he's a baby now. I just have a feeling. Not that it would do anything."

"Of course it wouldn't," Piper murmured. "He'd still be your baby, even if he was a hundred." Blue chuckled, the sky dark around them. As Piper finished the cigarette, pressing it against the concrete and tossing it over the side, Blue rubbed the aged gash on her forearm unconsciously. It was the first of the permanent, tangible marks this new world gave her—not by a deathclaw, mind—back when she was still cleaned and not coated in the shell of grime, dirt, blood and dust. At first, Blue could feel it, her need for a shower loud in her habitual conscious. Though, upon the realization that _everybody_ had this protective covering, she realized she was still clean.

Severely burned and confused, but clean.

Blue thought to the woman curled against her, an arm wrapped around her red coat. She pressed soft lips against Piper's temple before whispering, "I still wouldn't be able to do anything without you..."

"Hmmm...?" she hummed quietly. The moon—full tonight—hung behind them, stretching for the long hours ahead.

"You keep me grounded to my purpose, and I can't even dream of this place without you."

Piper smiled and kissed Blue softly. "I can't either," she mumbled in between. The more minutes that passed, the more deep their kisses became, raw and needing. "Come on," Piper coaxed, "we don't want to fall over, do we?" Blue snickered, the night suddenly blissful. She followed Piper who held her wrist, and barely remembered to snatch the satchels from beside the bus.

As both stepped onto the creaking vehicle, Dogmeat chirped at the door. "Sorry buddy, just wait for a bit, okay? Watch for anything bad." Dogmeat blinked dutifully, though tilted his head once the bus doors were slowly closed. (Well, as closed as anybody could get it.)

"It seems like we're not the only ones who thought of this," Piper giggled.

Curiously, Blue turned around to find a pink, severely stained mattress and candles lying around. "The candles are fine but...no mattress. Just—no. We have a couple of blankets, right?"

"Yeah...but..."

"I don't want to die because of a shitty mattress." Piper chuckled relentingly, carefully lighting the candles as Blue laid two blankets they had, a third cast aside. She slowly operated through her PipBoy before unclasping it off, setting it to the side. It was strange to have that clunky, though adored, piece of technology off her arm. Blue turned around, taking her hair out of its bun and running a quick hand through it. She ambled her way to Piper before curling her arms around her waist, peppering her neck with kisses.

In her grasp, Piper turned around and eagerly responded in kind. As they stumbled to the thin blankets, clothing slipped from their shoulders. Well, _Piper's_ did while the two of them had to work around the damn-zipper-that-wouldn't-budge on Blue's jumpsuit. And then there was the armor, of course. Once Blue was free from the clutches of her clothing, Piper hungrily eyed her body greedily. As she straddled the vault dweller, her hand grazed Blue's defined stomach.

"Be careful, Blue," she purred, hovering over full lips, "I love your body but I don't want you to be a _total_ hunk. Gotta leave some woman in there for me." Blue's snicker hummed against both their chests. With ease, the woman hooked her leg around the reporter and twisted the two over. As her hands began to wander across pale skin, delightful laughs came from Piper, giving Blue an honest-to-God smile. "God, _fuck_ Blue. My hip," she hissed, after a few moments.

"Sorry," she murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to the dark area. "Better?"

Jade eyes glinted in the wan candlelight, the moon poking from the corner of the windows. With her hair flowing wildly, Piper quickly brushed a few strands away, eyeing the view. She parted her legs wider. "Yeah," she murmured. "I like you from this angle." A devious smile grew across Blue's lips before she tenderly gave attention to her thighs, both of which still bore love-marks from nearly a week prior. Her grey, ethereal eyes bewitched Piper's thoughts, muddling them as she dove in.

The first of many moans—though soft—came, crawling uncontrollably out of her throat. Piper dover her head back, tangling her hand with Blue's long hair before immersing herself back into those deep, sultry eyes.

For a period of time, however short, they escaped everything around them, both how it was and is.

**. . .**

Hours later, when the third, thicker blanket covered their bare bodies, and when Dogmeat squeezed himself in, slumbering underneath a bench, Piper blinked awake. It was the dead of night, the candles barely lit and the moon high above, basking everything in a soft, white light. Her lover seemed to glow beside her, her skin near-flawless with the wounds and scars littered across. Blue turned, and held Piper close to her chest.

"How are we...?" she asked dreamily, drifting in and out of sleep.

Piper smiled and burrowed deeper into warmth. "Why do you ask that, you know how I feel?"

Blue shrugged. "I don't know. It's nice to hear."

"Well..." Piper sighed and pecked Blue's collarbone. She thought of how close they were to the clouds—and the moon—and to old books she read. "Blue, I'm on cloud nine. Things couldn't be better." She looked up to pale eyes with a soft smile. "And it's all thanks to you."

"I love you, Piper."

"I love you, Blue," she replied.

With that, both closed their eyes, wishing to just dream happily.


End file.
